MemCleaner ========== A free, open-source memory cleaner and monitor for Windows. Version 1.0.0. MIT license. Author: lordofsunshine. Repository: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner. Website: https://memmemory.lordofsunshine.wiki/. Russian version: https://memmemory.lordofsunshine.wiki/ru/. Summary ------- MemCleaner gives memory back to Windows. It displays RAM usage, available memory, the file cache and committed memory, and it clears the memory areas the user selects. Cleanup can be triggered by hand, on a timer, when memory usage passes a threshold, or by both conditions at once. It runs on Windows XP SP3 through Windows 11 using four separate installers. There is no account, no telemetry and no paid edition. Features -------- 1. Memory monitoring. Used RAM, available memory, file cache and committed memory, refreshed on a timer. 2. Selective cleanup. Process working sets, standby list, modified pages, system file cache. Each area can be enabled or disabled. 3. Automatic cleanup. Interval, memory usage threshold, or both. The conditions are independent. 4. Cleanup history. Time, trigger reason and estimated freed memory for every run. 5. Process exclusions. Chosen processes keep their working sets while other memory is cleaned. 6. Windows integration. Start with Windows, minimize to tray, global Ctrl+Alt+M hotkey. 7. Interface. Dark theme, English, Russian or system language. How the memory areas work ------------------------- Process working sets. Every running process holds pages it has recently touched. EmptyWorkingSet asks the process to release pages it is not using. Windows reloads them from disk when needed, so the first access to an old window may be slower. Standby list. Closed programs leave pages in a cached state ready to be reused. The cache is useful until it grows large enough to push the system toward the pagefile. Clearing standby releases that memory immediately. Modified pages. Dirty pages waiting to be written to disk. Flushing them releases memory and can shorten the next write burst, at the cost of some disk activity at the moment of cleaning. System file cache. Windows caches file reads in RAM. On a machine with heavy disk work the cache can grow out of proportion. Trimming it is the most situational option. Safety and scope ---------------- Windows caches memory because caching makes the system faster. A memory cleaner is not a fix for a machine that is genuinely out of memory. If a computer is constantly at 95 percent RAM usage, adding RAM or closing background applications will help more than any cleaning tool. MemCleaner is intended for the in-between cases and for visibility into what the system is doing. The standby list, modified pages and system file cache require an elevated process, so Windows asks for administrator rights. Working sets can be trimmed without elevation on the areas the user can reach. MemCleaner does not clean the registry, does not delete temporary files, ships no driver, makes no kernel patches, bundles no antivirus and has no PC speedup module. It calls documented Windows APIs and NtSetSystemInformation, which is undocumented but has been stable for about two decades. Supported systems ----------------- - Windows XP SP3, 32-bit only - Windows Vista SP2 - Windows 7 SP1 - Windows 8.1 - Windows 10 version 1809 or newer, x64 - Windows 11, x64 Memory area availability ------------------------ Process working sets: available on every supported version, including Windows XP. Standby list and modified pages: available on Windows Vista and newer. Not available on Windows XP. System file cache: available on Windows Vista and newer. On Windows XP, 64-bit edition only. The option is hidden in the 32-bit XP build. Elevated autostart task: available on Windows Vista and newer. On Windows XP, autostart uses the current user's Run registry key instead of a scheduled task. Legacy builds mark unsupported areas as unavailable and never allow them to be enabled. Builds and installers --------------------- Windows 10 1809+ and Windows 11 x64: WPF on .NET 10. Installer: MemCleaner-Setup-1.0.0.0.exe. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1: WinForms on .NET Framework 3.5, which is included with both systems. Installer: MemCleaner-Legacy-7-8.1-Setup-1.0.0.0.exe. Windows Vista SP2: WinForms on .NET Framework 3.5. Installer: MemCleaner-Legacy-Vista-Setup-1.0.0.0.exe. .NET Framework 3.5 must be installed separately. Windows XP SP3: WinForms on .NET Framework 3.5. Installer: MemCleaner-Legacy-XP-Setup-1.0.0.0.exe. .NET Framework 3.5 must be installed separately. All installers are on the GitHub Releases page: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner/releases Installation ------------ 1. Open the releases page and download the installer that matches the Windows version. 2. Run the installer. It checks the minimum supported Windows version and refuses to install on an incompatible system. 3. Choose the memory areas. Start with process working sets and the standby list. Leave the file cache alone unless there is a specific reason to clear it. 4. Optionally set an automatic threshold, around 80 to 85 percent is a reasonable starting point. Building from source -------------------- Modern version: dotnet publish windows-10-11/source/src/MemCleaner/MemCleaner.csproj -c Release -o publish Legacy version: dotnet build windows-xp/source/MemCleanerLegacy/MemCleanerLegacy.csproj -c Release The legacy build requires the Microsoft.NETFramework.ReferenceAssemblies.net35 package, restored automatically. Installers are built with Inno Setup. The modern version and the Windows 7/8.1 installer use Inno Setup 6. The Windows XP and Vista installers use Inno Setup 5 because version 6 cannot produce installers that run on those systems. Frequently asked questions -------------------------- Is MemCleaner free? Yes. MIT license, full source on GitHub. No paid edition, no trial, no upsell. Does it need administrator rights? For the standby list, modified pages and the file cache, yes. Windows only exposes those interfaces to an elevated process, so a UAC prompt appears. If it is declined, working sets can still be trimmed. Will it make a PC faster? Sometimes. If the machine is close to its memory limit and the standby list is large, freeing it can stop paging and make switching between programs feel quicker. With plenty of free RAM the difference is small. Windows manages memory well, and any cleaner that promises large speedups should be treated with suspicion. Which Windows versions are supported? Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7 SP1, 8.1, Windows 10 1809 or newer, Windows 11. The modern build is x64 only. XP, Vista and 7/8.1 use separate WinForms installers on .NET Framework 3.5. Does it send data anywhere? No accounts and no telemetry. Settings, exclusions and cleanup history are stored in the current user's AppData folder. How is this different from RAMMap? RAMMap is Microsoft's diagnostic tool. It shows what occupies physical memory and allows manual clearing. MemCleaner is a small always-on version of that idea: monitoring, a threshold, a tray icon, a global hotkey and a log of previous runs. Кратко по-русски ---------------- MemCleaner — бесплатная программа с открытым исходным кодом для очистки и мониторинга оперативной памяти Windows. Работает на Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7 SP1, 8.1, 10 (1809+) и 11. Очищает рабочие наборы процессов, standby-список, изменённые страницы и системный кеш файлов. Умеет запускаться по таймеру, по порогу использования памяти или по обоим условиям. Есть история очисток, исключения процессов, сворачивание в трей, автозапуск и глобальная комбинация Ctrl+Alt+M. Лицензия MIT, аккаунта и телеметрии нет. Страница на русском: https://memmemory.lordofsunshine.wiki/ru/ Contact and links ----------------- Repository: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner Releases: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner/releases Issues: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner/issues License: https://github.com/lordofsunshine/memcleaner/blob/main/LICENSE Author: https://github.com/lordofsunshine